Archdeacon Adamis huffed as if Rylan’s interrogation was completely out of line. “You were the one who sent back the report that she must have died on the rocks below the wall and devoured by monsters, the only sign she had been there, a dented, broken goblet.”


    “If not for the Grail I never would have conceded to the farce of her dying in her sleep!”


    “Sir Rylan,” Judd put his hand out, doing the unimaginable by getting in Sir Rylan’s way, “before you are too hasty…Genovieve was only revealed today, scant hours ago. We have all been trying to work out how she survived Maul…”


    “If indeed she was ever there.” Caste mused.


    “What was that?” Sir Rylan turned on the deacon.


    “The wall is made to keep monsters out of the north. I doubt someone as slight and frail as Genovieve could have survived long enough to escape it. This makes me wonder if she was ever there.”


    Rylan shook his head and sank onto a chair. “She…we found slops of wine from our bedchamber to the top of the wall and the battered goblet…it appeared obvious what happened. I never should have left her on her own after receiving the missive about her brother, my friend, Nicolin.”


    Judd glanced at King Rocheveron as Garo Rylan spoke, seeing a light puckering between the king’s eyebrows and the bob of his throat as he swallowed.


    “Afterwards I thought, perhaps, we had been too hasty in assuming that was what happened.” Rylan admitted.


    “You thought she might have been kidnapped?”


    “While I could not see how, Fort Verion is guarded day and night, it was indeed possible but there was never a ransom demand or evidence to support my theory.” Rylan shook his head, his fingers running through his tawny tresses. “How is she here? Who found her?” Judd grimaced and put his hand up. Rylan stood and grasped his arms. “You found my wife?”


    “I didn’t know who she was.” Judd explained. “I was on my knighthood quest, in a forest and Aalis…Genovieve…was there.”


    “And you recognised her eyes?”


    “I…did not realise the significance…”


    “Then how did you know to bring her here?”


    Judd cringed. “I didn’t. When I met A…Genovieve, she was a healer and I was only a few days out from Astaril on my quest. She joined Caste Undern and myself and travelled all of Terra with us before I did as I promised and returned her to her home in the forest.”


    “Then how is she here?”


    Judd opened his mouth, paused and turned to Archdeacon Adamis. “Would you care to fill this part in?”


    Adamis’ eyes were flinty. “When Genovieve was brought before King Rocheveron…it was because she was accused of being a witch.”


    Rylan took a step towards him and in response, Adamis took two backwards. “My beloved Genovieve…accused of being a witch? This is ludicrous!”


    “There were witnesses of her use of unnatural powers. A cleric, a score of soldiers and their captain.” Adamis protested.


    “I don’t care if she caused the seas to boil and the sky to turn red in front of Bishop Peele, the twelve archdeacons and all the officers of the Grail!” Rylan argued. “Genovieve would not, could not, ever harm anyone! My word in Fort Verion is law and I know King Rocheveron will stand with me in defence of his daughter’s purity.”


    Rocheveron nodded, still looking quite shocked. Judd began to wonder if they ought to call a physician for him.


    “There is another matter…” Adamis cleared his throat and tugged on the collar of his cappa clausa. “Princess Genovieve vowed to be faithful to you…but it has been several years…”


    “She did what she needed to survive and I won’t hear anything about it.”


    The archdeacon gave a small shrug and frowned quite dramatically. “I would, of course, heed to your words…except that Judd LaMogre has been accused of fraternisation with the witch, Dragoslava…”


    “Dragoslava…my Genovieve?” Rylan’s amber eyes locked onto Judd’s brown gaze. “You?”


    “Well…I…” Judd fumbled.


    “Deacon Undern will be able to confirm it, surely.” Adamis’ eyes showed a sinister degree of pleasure in them as he looked at Caste, everyone turning to the young deacon. “You were with them the entire time.”


    Caste licked his lips, his green eyes darting between Judd and Sir Rylan, attempting to peel back the layers of inuendo, lies and deception.


    “While I cannot say with absolution that such intimate fraternisation occurred,” Caste said slowly, each word deliberately chosen as he tried to give himself time to work out what the next word would be, “there were instances where they were alone together…for appropriate amounts of time.”


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    Judd’s heart sank as he heard Caste’s words. Undern had just as good as condemned him.


    “LaMogre…a word.” Sir Rylan walked to the end of the room and waited for Judd to approach, suspecting the golden knight was about to start hurling fists and strike him down. Garo leaned on the mantlepiece above the fire, his jaw tight as licked his lips.


    “Sir Rylan…”


    Garo Rylan lifted his hand and Judd’s words were cut off as if a sword had severed his tongue.


    “This is not easy for me to say,” Rylan said darkly then looked at Judd, deathly serious, “but if you brought comfort to my wife in my absence…then I thank you.”


    Judd rubbed his forehead. “Sir Rylan…please understand…”


    “Oh, I do understand. You are in love with her.” Rylan nodded at Judd’s jaw drop. “I see it in your eyes, as plain as your Maul is dark. I could never condemn a man for falling in love…and acting on it when you didn’t know she was someone else’s. You protected her in the wilds and enjoyed the thrill of her delicate embrace,” Judd blushed hard, “but while you had her for a time, she is mine forever. I won’t let her be taken from me again…unless you plan on challenging me to a duel for her hand. Can you understand that?”


    Judd nodded, too stunned by Rylan’s blunt words to know how to respond.


    “Then it is settled.” Rylan strode back to the company that had been trying to conceal their desperate interest in their hushed conversation. “There will be no recriminations against LaMogre for his actions, regardless whether the accusations be of fraternisations with a witch or Genovieve. In fact, the matter ends in this room. I will not have my wife’s reputation brought into question.”


    Judd felt like he was sinking deeper and deeper into turbulent seas. Sooner or later the air was going to run out in his lungs and he would drown.


    “There is a small matter of…tradition,” Caste spoke up, “in regards to a wife who has not been…faithful.”


    “Caste!” Verne hissed.


    Rylan’s eyes narrowed to slits and his hand shifted instinctively to the hilt of one of his swords. “Be very careful, deacon, on what you say next.”


    “I speak not of Princess Genovieve’s reputation but about the tradition of reconciliation,” Caste explained, standing up to speak, his hands becoming expressive not unlike Giordi when telling a story, “you see, in the past, in the tomes of ancient Terra, the wife of a prominent male citizen who had been caught in adultery or accused of being unfaithful, would naturally be put to death.” Giordi slapped his forehead and groaned. “However, if the husband chose to forgive grievances, there was a process of reconciliation.”


    “You speak of the ‘Rite of Purification’?” Adamis asked and Caste nodded. The archdeacon snorted. “That hasn’t been put into practice for decades!”


    “It’s still a part of Astaril law.” Caste argued. “Following the tradition would allow for the law to be fulfilled, making any future recriminations void, thus protecting both husband and wife and time for Princess Genovieve to regain her strength.”


    “What would the rite involve?” King Rocheveron asked. “The details of the tradition escape me and I am reluctant to put Genovieve through any more trauma or trial.”


    “She needs not endure anything other than time.” Caste explained. “As LaMogre is the one Princess Genovieve fraternised with, regardless of when any fraternisation occurred, the tradition states that she must be kept in isolation with obvious essential needs addressed, until the week following her monthly discharge. This proves two things. That she is not with child and that the emission is a natural purge.”


    There were red faces all round, Verne’s the most flushed of all. Not even Caste, as the speaker, had been spared from the telltale heat of embarrassment.


    King Rocheveron glanced at Judd and at Adamis then to Sir Rylan. “I approve of this tradition in fulfillment of the law. Sir Rylan, do you concur?”


    Sir Rylan frowned. “I would take her as my wife here and now. I have no fear of another man’s seed. But, perhaps, it would be best. I would not want there to be any question of who my children’s father really is should we conceive an heir. It was our dream when first married to begin a family immediately and while it was unfulfilled, I hope to continue in that dream.” He nodded and stood up. “Well done, Deacon Undern. I see why Judd LaMogre was assigned you as his representative of the Order of the Grail. You are wise for one so young.”


    “Sir Rylan,” King Rocheveron stood, “please, will you not stay in the castle tonight while we finalise the details?”


    “Your hospitality is always welcome.” Sir Rylan turned to the room and bowed before leaving it, Archdeacon Adamis, knowing he had no friends left in it, also exited on the heels of both king and knight.


    Judd stood up and closed the door.


    “What in Maul were you thinking?” Verne exploded at Caste. “You threw Judd before Rylan, practically saying Judd and Aalis tumbled endlessly while on the quest!”


    “I said nothing so coarse!”


    “You might as well have!” Giordi agreed. “It is only to Sir Rylan’s credit that this didn’t end in a duel at dawn!”


    “What were you thinking, Undern?” Judd turned on Caste, his voice hollow yet grieved. “Have I so insulted and offended you that you would try to get me killed? That you would sully Aalis’ purity? You know she and I never once bussed, let alone ‘tumbled’.”


    Caste gazed at Judd sadly. “Wasn’t it worth the risk…to have the time to work out why Aalis is so frightened of Sir Garo Rylan?” Judd paused, stunned. Caste looked around at the others then back to Judd. “Why she never once told us who she was? Why she lived in hiding in a forest under a false name? Why she never tried to return to her husband or to her father and Astaril?”


    Judd faltered, shaking. “You…I thought I was the only one who thought Aalis was…”


    “Judd, she was terrified.” Verne insisted.


    “And Rocheveron knows something about it too.” Giordi added. “The look on his face as Rylan came into the room…how he kept looking at the door nervously and never told Rylan about Aalis until she burst in and was unable to be stopped?”


    “And had Suvau ‘guard’ Aalis bedchamber door?” Caste finished.


    “You picked up on that?”


    “Obviously.” Caste nodded. “I know I played a dangerous hand…but I could not think of any other way to keep Rylan away from Aalis until we know the truth behind what happened when she disappeared.”


    “I…I thought…you were trying to get me killed.” Judd rasped.


    Caste stared at a spot on the rug. “You and I may have had our disagreements,” he admitted softly, “but I never wished you harm. My job was to try to keep you alive…or at least be nearby to record how you died.”


    Judd laughed. It was all he could do. It was all he had left to do, his emotions were so wrung out and empty after the gauntlet they had run. He reached out and clasped Caste’s hand.


    “You’re a good friend, Undern.”


    Caste looked at their joined hands, swallowing hard as he felt Judd’s friendship for the first time like a pillar of strength. “I could have been a better one.” Caste admitted. “I guess I’ve never had much practice…and you’re all impossible to like.”


    They shared a soft laugh, Verne tapping his teeth together. “So, if Aalis is going to be in isolation, how are we going to talk to her?”


    “That I don’t know.” Caste pulled a face. “It was the only snag in an, otherwise, beautiful plan.”


    “I also want to know how Chael and Rodel tracked us and what they saw.” Judd nodded then turned to Caste. “I suspect they won’t talk to me or any of the others but perhaps they’d like to confess to Deacon Undern?”